Chemical vapor deposition (CVD) and atomic layer deposition (ALD) processes are used extensively throughout semiconductor manufacturing fabrication. A commonality between these two processes is the use of a gaseous deposition source that enters the processing chamber and then chemically reacts within the chamber to deposit a desired film on a substrate assembly, typically a silicon wafer.
Both CVD and ALD processing utilize precursor materials as a source to deposit the required film and these precursors may be in either gas, liquid or solid forms. Many techniques have been developed to successfully delivery a gas or liquid precursor to the processing chamber in a gaseous or vaporized form. The more difficult precursor to use efficiently in the CVD or ALD process is the solid material (or solid source chemical precursor). The solid source chemical precursor must be converted to a vapor and transported to the processing chamber while avoiding significant thermal decomposition during the vaporization and delivery stage, which are obstacles that have proven difficult to overcome. What is needed is a deposition processing system that provides the means and method to effectively deliver a solid source chemical precursor to a deposition chamber that effectively addresses the obstacles thereof.